Isle Of Dogs – PG

“You heard the rumour…?”

There’s really no way of sugarcoating this….Isle Of Dogs is AMAZING!

It was film #22 in my #100MoviesChallenge2018 and I have to say it has absolutely smashed the other twenty-one out of the park.

Rating : 9/10

The film is the story of the aftermath of an outbreak of Dog Flu which has led the major of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to Trash Island to die a slow death. When his nephew crashes into the island in the search for his dog Spots, a group of dogs from the island vow to help him find his loyal companion and search the island with him.

It doesn’t sound like much at all does it?

But believe me when I say…it’s brilliantly done.

Wes Anderson has crafted an absolute masterpiece. Everything is in the right place, from the casting of some very strong-voiced actors like Bryan Cranston, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and Ed Norton. They each bring a certain charm to their characters and draw you in.

The writing is superb. There’s some great comedy in there, and the story is brilliant, but it’s the way in which the film is made that is special.

Firstly its officially the longest Stop-Motion animation ever, beating Coraline by a whole 2 minutes. Then you get the storytelling though the raw Japanese characters speaking, but as an audience we hear translators or see captions on screen to explain what is going on. Despite a very large portion of the film being purely in Japanese, it’s amazingly easy to follow.

Everything is beautiful about it. The scenery, the art direction of everything and the animation is just pure perfection.

Below is my instant reaction to the film after coming out of the screening, followed by the trailer. You get a sense of how the film will feel from the trailer but you really have to go see it at the cinema to witness it yourself……….